Part One - Background and The First Attempt
- Background of The Development
- Reasons of Bus Fire
- The First attempt of Chinese Bus Compartment Low Pressure Water Mist System
Background of The Development
Along with the rapid development of urban economy and fast expansion of city size, quantity of public buses have sharply increased. Public buses are densely populated and closed in space, the security condition of which is more complicated. Fire out-breaking and spontaneous combustion are even frequent occurrences, bringing serious threats to life safety of bus drivers and passengers, causing unpredictable losses to human properties.
Reasons of Bus Fire
Public bus fire mainly originates from two reasons:
- Bus spontaneous combustion: vehicle spontaneous combustion is a commonplace situation and it may result from the following aspects: Oil and liquid leakage due to problem in oil circuit; Shortcut or sparks caused by aging or misconnection of wires; Combustion of flammable material generated by high heat; Fire caused by vehicle crash or mechanical failure.
- Arson attack: Arson is when someone deliberately sets fire to someone else's property to damage it or to injure people. Under increasingly sophisticated social environment and serious anti-terrorism situation, we have to take human factor into consideration.
Although current public buses are equipped with portable dry powder fire extinguisher, the fire extinguishers position is usually far out of the reach of drivers. At the same time, the crowded passenger group in the bus cabin makes it even harder for the fire extinguisher to function well and timely. Due to closed space, once there is fire, there is nearly time for escaping, which will easily cause injuries and deaths.
The First attempt of Chinese Bus Compartment Low Pressure Water Mist System
The first attempt of Chinese public bus fire extinguishing system was conducted in 2009. The drive for the development was one Arson Attack in Chengdu Bus, which had caused 27 dead and 74 injured. Government paid lots of attentions on this case by calling on local fire fighting bureau and fire fighting enterprise to work together and develop Chinese first bus compartment fire extinguishing system.
The system was intended for arson attack prevention, which was a political mission. So after just 3 months, on 3rd, September, the first system was installed in the bus in Sichuang Province. However, the first -generation “rush-out” system was high in cost and unstable in use. Later, with several years of systematic study, the system was gradually optimized and became mature in application.
In 2015, Chinese first standard for fixed fire extinguishing system of public bus passenger compartment GA1264-2015 was issued.
In 2018, Tianjin Fire Research Institute has issued Voluntary Product Certification Specification, including the certified method of bus fire extinguishing system, providing legal and certification basis.
From then on, Chinese bus compartment fire extinguishing systems have started to be widely applied in Chinese market.
To be continued:
- Development of Chinese Bus Compartment Low Pressure Water Mist System
-Part Two: Technical Development-
- Development of Chinese Bus Compartment Low Pressure Water Mist System
-Part Three: A Typical Case Study-